Indian festival – Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha

1. What is Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha?

Offer everything to Ananthapadmanabha Swamy (Lord Vishnu) - my actions, my soul, good, bad and bowing to Ananthapadmanabha Swamy by doing worship (poja).

2. When is Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha?

On chathurdashi (14th day) in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, August – September in Gregorian calendar.

3. Who did Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha for the first time?

According to Bhavishyothara Purana, Lord Krishna suggested Yudhishtira (eldest brother of Pandavas in the epic Mahabharatha) to perform Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha during their 14 years of exile.

4. How Ananthapadmanabha Swamy Vratha is done?

 “Anatha” means “infinite / endless” and it is believed that by following this vratha, one is bestowed with Ayushya / life, Arogya / health and Gyana / enlightenment.

Ananthapadmanabha Swamy is worshipped in his “Seshashayana“(god sleeping on a snake) posture.

Clean the place of worship,  and draw Ananthanagantu rangoli.

Keep two Kalashas one for Vishnu and the other for Lakshmi. Keep darbe / sacred grass. Place one on each of the Kalasha. For one kalasha put a single Janivara / Yagnopaveetha / sacred thread. For the other decorate with jewellery and mangalya. Keep Ananthana Dhara / 14 lined red thread on betel leaves and nut near the Kalasha. Keep some yellow manthrakshathe on the side for Yamuna pooja as Sri Krishna’s favorite river is Yamuna. For full procedure of puja read: https://www.itslife.in/festivals/ananthapadmanabha-swamy-vratha

5. Who is Ananthapadmanabha Swamy?

The sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar, who resided near Ananthapuram Temple in Kasargod District, prayed to Lord Vishnu for his darshan. The Lord is believed to have come in the guise of a little boy. Sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar, requested boy to stay with him. On the condition that sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar shall not become angry on the boy or else he leave and go to Anantha Kadu (Forest). The little boy who was very very mischievous. One day boy took the idol Lord Vishnu and start playing. Sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar became enraged at this and chased away the boy. Boy left and sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar and went to forest.

After a long search, when sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar was walking on the banks of Arabian Sea, he heard a pulaya lady threatening her child that she would throw him in Ananthankadu. The moment the Swami heard the word Ananthankadu he was delighted. He proceeded to Ananthankadu based on the directions of the lady of whom he enquired. The Sage reached Ananthankadu searching for the boy. There he saw the boy merging into an Iluppa tree (Indian Butter Tree). The tree fell down and became Anantha Sayana Moorti (Vishnu reclining on the celestial snake Anantha). But, the edifice that the Lord assumed was of an extraordinarily eight miles in length, with His head at Thiruvallom, navel at Thiruvananthapuram, and lotus-feet at Thrippadapuram (Thrippappur), making him some eight miles in length. The Sage requested the Lord to shrink to a smaller proportion that would be thrice the length of his staff. Immediately the Lord shrank to the form of the Idol of 20 Feet that is seen at present in the Temple.

6. Why there are 3 doors in the temple to see Ananthapadmanabha Swamy?

In continuation from the last answer…..But even then many Iluppa trees obstructed a complete vision of the Lord. The Sage saw the Lord in three parts – thirumukham, thiruvudal and thrippadam. Swami prayed to Padmanabha to be forgiven. The Swami offered Rice Kanji and Uppumanga (salted mango pieces) in a coconut shell to the Perumal which he obtained from the pulaya woman. The spot where the Sage had darsan of the Lord belonged to Koopakkara Potti and Karuva Potti. With the assistance of the reigning King and some Brahmin households a temple was constructed. Koopakkara Potti was made the Tantri of the Temple. The Ananthankadu Nagaraja Temple still exists to the north west of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The Samadhi (final resting place) of the Swamiyar exists to the west of the Padmanabha Temple. A Krishna Temple was built over the Samadhi. This Temple, known as Vilvamangalam Sri Krishna Swami Temple, belongs to Thrissur Naduvil Madhom.

7. What is Ananthapadmanabha Swamy made up of?

The deity is made from 12,008 saligramams. These saligrams are from the banks of the Gandaki River in Nepal, and to commemorate this certain rituals used to be performed at the Pashupatinath Temple. The deity of Padmanabha is covered with, "Katusarkara yogam", a special ayurvedic mix, which forms a plaster that keeps the deity clean. The daily worship is with flowers and for the abhishekam, special deities are used.

8. What is there in Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple?

First, to enter in to the temple, there is dress code:

At the centre of the temple, all can we see from the 3 doors of the same as Sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar saw the Ananthapadmanabha Swamy in three parts – thirumukham, thiruvudal and thrippadam for the first time.

Inside the Temple, there are two other important shrines, Thekkedom and Thiruvambadi, for the Deities, Ugra Narasimha and Krishna Swami respectively. There are also shrines for Rama accompanied by Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, Vishwaksena (the Nirmalyadhari of Vishnu and Remover of Obstacles), Vyasa, Ganapati, Sasta, and Kshetrapala (who guards the temple). Grand idols of Garuda and Hanuman stand with folded hands in the Valiya balikkal area.[3] The thevara idols of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma and Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma are housed in the south east part of the Temple.

The foundation of the present gopuram was laid in 1566.[24] The temple has a 100-foot (30 m),[25] 7-tier gopuram made in the Pandyan style. It is said that, If a person stands on 7 –tier, he can see the sea directly without obstruction.

9. Is Ananthapadmanabha Swamy is the richest god?

Yes, it seems to be and the list of the rich gods are as follows:

1. Padmanadhaswamy Temple

2. Tirumala Tirupati Balaji Venkateswara Swami Temple

3. Shirdi Sai Baba Temple

4. Puri Jagannath Temple

5. Siddhivinayak Temple

6. Viashno Devi Temple

7. Somnath Temple

8. Guruvayurappan Temple

9. Meenakshi Temple

10. Kashi Vishwanath Temple

10. How much gold is there in Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple?

This is the first temple where Dhaliths are permitted to enter and do the poja.

The temple and its assets belong to Lord Padmanabhaswamy, and were for a long time controlled by a trust, headed by the Travancore Royal family. However, for the present, the Supreme Court of India has divested the Travancore Royal Family from leading the management of the temple. T P Sundararajan's litigations changed the way the world looked at the Temple.

In June 2011, the Supreme Court directed the authorities from the archaeology department and the fire services, to open the secret 6 chambers (Kallaras) A, B, C, D, E and F OR it even called by name 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 chambers of the temple for inspection of the items kept inside. These chambers are 20 feet below the ground level.

5 and 6 chamber are open on regular basis which contains ornaments of lord used on daily basis. 3 and 4^th chambers opened thrice in one year on festivals and on special occasions as these chambers contains special ornaments of lord. Remaining 1 and 2 chambers, which was not open from 150 years. After T P Sundararajan's litigations, searcing staff tried to open the 2^nd chamber, but they failed to open.

Then they tied to open the 1^st door after 7 Hrs of time. They found one more door to passage and found tons of gold. They took to account them for 6 months.

Leaving the 2^nd chamber, the accounted price is approx. 1,20,000 Crores. But since this is antique items, the cost may be hiked by 10-20 times more. One coin price 2.5 crore.  But still, 2^nd door was not opened. I2 more underground chamber found and named as 7 and 8^th. 2 passages are found and they are directed towards the sea.

11. Where did these much of gold come here?

These are may be collected from 2000 year back and the collection from the followings sources:

1. God Tax, King used to keep 1 part to god.

2. Collected from defeating the other king places.

3. Some kings like Sri Krishna Deva Raja, Gowri Lakshmi Bhai, etc used to donate the gold, diamonds to god.

4. At the time of Gowri Lakshmi Bhai hide more gold here for saftey.

5. Exchange of Black pepper (Kari mensu) at the cost of gold.

12. Who is Babiya guards (Vegetarian crocodile)?

Babiya only eats the temple prasad which is made of rice and jaggery and does not harm anyone, including the fish in the lake. The crocodile is believed to be vegetarian and is guarding the temple for more than 60 years! A trustee of the temple has said that Babiya is a total vegetarian and is fed daily after the noon worship conducted at the temple, it is given the prasads offered by the devotees and they feed her like an elephant by putting the prasad in its mouth.

Another temple caretaker narrates a different story about Babiya’s existence. Once Sree Vilvamangalathu Swami, devotee of Lord Vishnu, was doing penance for his favourite lord.

Etc……

Many thanks to google.com, wikipedia.org, yoyo TV kannada, …etc…. from where the data has been collected.